Jul/100
Nice little store – 1 World Trading Co.
I stopped in here recently and picked up a great bag made from an old sail. Lots of other “green” goodies as well to be had.
Check ‘em out on the web (see link below)
You are invited to put your feet up, peruse our web site and enjoy the selection offair trade, locally made and greenhousehold products and gifts from around NH and the world. If you prefer to visit us in person, we are located at Downtown Portsmouth at 603 766 8111 76 Congress Street, Portsmouth, NH, and Downtown Nashua at 603 881 9111 204a Main Street, Nashua, NH.
via 1 World Trading Co..
May/100
Landfill waste turned into housing structural panels
Interesting product: wonder who eco-friendly the binding resins are, how much energy it takes to divert the preferred product from the landfills (probably don’t want filled diapers or hotdogs as part of the structure for example), etc.
“There will always be a role for “Landfill” in every Town & City, but the challenge is “how to get landfill reduced to a more acceptable level?”. This matter will only be resolved by central government driving multiple and innovative solutions where every person considers the alternatives, which includes changes in how and what we buy. Each TPR™ frame house uses 18 tonnes of selected waste in the process, this waste would otherwise have gone to land fill.”
Feb/100
Baloney Detection Kit
Baloney Detection Kit
From CarlSagan.com
Warning signs that suggest deception. Based on the book by Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World. The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:
Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts.
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no “authorities”).
Spin more than one hypothesis – don’t simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours.
Quantify, wherever possible.
If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
Occam’s razor – if there are two hypotheses that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, it is testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?
Additional issues are:
Conduct control experiments – especially “double blind” experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
Check for confounding factors – separate the variables.
Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric
Ad hominem – attacking the arguer and not the argument.
Argument from “authority”.
Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an “unfavorable” decision).
Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
Special pleading (typically referring to god’s will).
Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not “proved”).
Non sequitur – “it does not follow” – the logic falls down.
Post hoc, ergo propter hoc – “it happened after so it was caused by” – confusion of cause and effect.
Meaningless question (“what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
Excluded middle – considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the “other side” look worse than it really is).
Short-term v. long-term – a subset of excluded middle (“why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?”).
Slippery slope – a subset of excluded middle – unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
Confusion of correlation and causation.
Caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack.
Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
Weasel words – for example, use of euphemisms for war such as “police action” to get around limitations on Presidential powers. “An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public
Feb/100
Climate change causes more severe weather
Climate change causes more severe weatherCall it “Snowpocalypse” or “Snowageddon,” the mid-Atlantic and Northwestern U.S. have seen winter storms this year that rival anything in decades. Scientists agree that this kind of extreme weather is not just consistent with climate change research, it’s the direct result of rising temperatures in our oceans.
Oct/090
Poll: US belief in global warming is cooling
Well, I guess if the public thinks its not happening, then its not happening. Of course, I realize that it’s important for there to be widespread support for something before politicians will do something related to that something. Something like that.
WASHINGTON – Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.
via Poll: US belief in global warming is cooling – Yahoo! News.
Oct/090
Mango Wood: Sustainable, Beautiful, Affordable
I’m buying a new house and furnishing it. I’m trying to put things in it that are eco-friendly. I’ve come across furniture made of mango wood (Crate and Barrel for example sells quite a bit of it), and I was curious about what makes it sustainably grown/harvested. Here’s a nice article on the subject from “Nature Repurposed”
“Sustainable furnishings are becoming easier to find these days, with more prevalent sources and better prices. One versatile eco-friendly source of wood is the mango tree, grown and harvested on mango plantations.
What makes mango wood sustainable? Mango trees are huge trees that are initially grown for their fruit. The trees can reach 60 to 100 feet in height and can grow up to three to five feet in diameter. However, once the trees reach this size, they stop producing fruit. The farmers cut these trees down in order to make room for new mango trees that can produce the fruit. Once the older trees are cut down, the mango wood is used for making wood products, providing an additional revenue for the farmers and making good use of the resources.”
via Nature Repurposed: Mango Wood: Sustainable, Beautiful, Affordable.
Aug/090
Tire Maker Designs Rubber-Paneled, Electric SUV
“Korean tire maker Kumho has produced a concept for an electric SUV utilizing a tire maker’s favorite material – rubber. The Fortis SUV features body panels made from recycled rubber and the rest of the design is pretty cool too.”
Jul/090
Wal-Mart Measuring Pollution and Water Use of EVERYTHING
Very impressive of Wally-world (as my Dad, who works there, affectionately calls them).
…Wal-Mart is now on a mission to determine the social and environmental impact of everything they sell (which is a lot of things.) They’ve hired an army of people to help them do it, including several environmental groups. And, thus, they will create that universal footprint rating that well-meaning enviros have been trying (and failing) to create for decades. Or, at least, I hope they will….
Jul/090
Global Warming is a myth – Is a Myth!
![CropperCapture[3]](http://terrakeeper.com/terrakeeperblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/CropperCapture3-299x129.jpg "CropperCapture[3]")
Imaged borrowed from this blog right here.
My sentiments exactly. Why does every idea we think is incorrect have to be a myth.
Here are some for consideration:
Life via Creation is a Myth
Life via Evolution is a Myth